The 1947 - Present Chevrolet & GMC Truck Message Board Network - View Single Post - Those of you who converted to rear disk, can you feel much of a difference?

Ziegelsteinfaust · 06-16-2019, 10:39 AM

If you have decent sized with good components drum brakes you will not likely feel any difference. They will how ever last longer with out fade under heavy breaking.

If you have a single stage master cylinder the breaking will feel better due to proper front rear bias.

My friend had a 63 C10 with very small, but practically new drum breaks. The stopping distance was not much better with 11.75 C10 hd front breaks, and El Dorado rear disks. Something like 5' at best between the few times we took measurements. All within the margin of error based on his reaction times. Although on the 3rd time he could really feel the breaks starting to get soft. So heat soak was starting to appear in the breaks, but not to where it was effecting stopping power on that test run.

There are two other things people never due for there breaks that can dramatically increase effectiveness. Stickier tires, and light weight wheels. The tires help with contact patch, and the light weight rims help with the breaks overcoming the wheels inertia. Also run reasonably wide tires. I see to many people running stupidly thin tires for what ever reason

06-16-2019, 10:39 AM	#5
Ziegelsteinfaust Registered User Join Date: Dec 2012 Location: Temple City Posts: 3,560	Re: Those of you who converted to rear disk, can you feel much of a difference? If you have decent sized with good components drum brakes you will not likely feel any difference. They will how ever last longer with out fade under heavy breaking. If you have a single stage master cylinder the breaking will feel better due to proper front rear bias. My friend had a 63 C10 with very small, but practically new drum breaks. The stopping distance was not much better with 11.75 C10 hd front breaks, and El Dorado rear disks. Something like 5' at best between the few times we took measurements. All within the margin of error based on his reaction times. Although on the 3rd time he could really feel the breaks starting to get soft. So heat soak was starting to appear in the breaks, but not to where it was effecting stopping power on that test run. There are two other things people never due for there breaks that can dramatically increase effectiveness. Stickier tires, and light weight wheels. The tires help with contact patch, and the light weight rims help with the breaks overcoming the wheels inertia. Also run reasonably wide tires. I see to many people running stupidly thin tires for what ever reason